Should we build a bridge across Knik Arm?

* Some explanatory text about this web site will be coming soon,
here. *

Is the proposed Knik Arm Bridge a good idea or a "Bridge to Nowhere"?
Who will benefit and who will be harmed if the bridge is built?
Are there other alternatives that should be considered?
What will the bridge cost and who will pay for it?

This website provides factual information and documentation to answer these questions.

The language of the resolution’s key conditions follows:
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Borough Assembly supports the Knik Arm Bridge conditioned upon the receipt of federal or state funds to provide for needed public infrastructure on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough side of the bridge; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Assembly of the Matanuska-Susitna Brough requests that existing Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority (KABATA) project funds be used to complete a community impact assessment of the Big Lake community as well as initiate the engineering and design of Knik-Goose Bay Road, Burma Road, and South Big Lake Road; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that there will be a need for road and other infrastructure improvements including Knik Goose Bay Road, Burma Road, and South Big Lake Road on the Matnuska-Susitna Borough end of the Knik arm crossing when the bridge is built.

March 2010 Media

March 26th, 2010

“Knik Bridge gets a shot in the arm.” To view this 3/26/10 KTVA story, please click here. [Dead link, this story is no longer online.]

The decision-making body for transportation projects, the Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions (AMATS) Policy Committee, today voted 3-2 to keep the Knik Arm Bridge project in the short-term portion of the Anchorage Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP). The three advisory committees to the Policy Committee – the Anchorage Planning and Zoning Commission, the AMATS Technical Advisory Committee, and the Anchorage Assembly – each voted in 2009 and 2010 to remove the bridge from the list of short-term projects. The five-member Policy Committee is composed of representatives from the Alaska Departments of Transportation and Environmental Conservation, Mayor Sullivan, and two representatives from the Anchor-age Assembly. The Assembly representatives (Flynn and Selkregg) alone voted to make the bridge a long-term project, i.e., post-2018 construction, because key financial and technical questions were not answered by the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority during its testimony before the advisory committees.

Anchorage Assembly Votes to Move the Knik Arm Bridge to the Long-Term

March 17th, 2010

Following a public meeting on March 16, the Anchorage Assembly passed by a vote of 6-5 resolution 2010-40 [Dead link, this resolution is no longer online.] which recommends to the Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions (AMATS) Policy Committee that the Knik Arm Bridge be moved from the list of short-term projects to the list of long-term projects in the Anchorage Bowl 2025 Long-Range Transportation Plan.